Join the BPF Chicago chapter for two different, free events featuring David Loy, the first on Saturday at DePaul University (below) and the second at:

Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, 1922 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago -- 10am on Sunday October 29 2017Dharma talk entitled "The New Bodhisattva Path."How might we understand the bodhisattva path today? What is distinctive about it?What can it contribute to our work for social justice and ecological healing?

Demonstrate with the Rohingya on Saturday September 23, 2017, Downtown Chicago 1-3pm

Plaza of the Americas, Hubbard St (just north of the Wrigley Building).Raise your voice to stop the genocide of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, now occurring in Burma (Myanmar).

(If you bring any signs or posters, please be mindful about wording (since Burmese "Buddhists" and military are committing the genocide). We will not be bringing the BPF banner, etc. This is about showing solidarity with the local Rohingya refugee community and the Rohingya Culture Center. If you need good background info, watch this: <https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2017/9/20>, click on the Rohingya story. Thank you and we hope to see you there.

Ruth Ozeki: Tales for the Time BeingA DePaul University Public TalkSaturday, November 5, 2016 2-4 p.m.Cortelyou Commons2324 N. Fremont St. at BeldenChicago, IL / Free

Ruth Ozeki will read from her novel “A Tale for the Time Being” and talk about some of the ideas that inspired it such as ghosts and history, the perplexing nature of time, Zen and writing, metafiction, self-narratives, and the relationship between readers and writers.Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. Her award-winning novels include “My Year of Meats,” “The Face: A Time Code” and “A Tale for the Time Being,” which brilliantly weaves together Zen insights into Japanese culture, temporality, and war and peace in a fascinating story. She resides in British Columbia and Brooklyn, and teaches at Smith College. Her critically acclaimed independent films have been screened at Sundance and on PBS.

Sponsored by the Center for Religion, Culture and Community and the Peace, Social Justice and Conflict Studies Program; co-sponsored by Buddhist Peace Fellowship Chicago, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, Lakeside Buddha Sangha, Global Asian Studies and the English Department, and others

Ancient Dragon Zen Gate Peace and Environment Forum

Melissa Brice:Science and Solutions Behind Climate Change

Join Climate Reality Project Leader and Chicago 350 Chapter founder, Melissa Brice, for a presentation about the science behind climate change and how this affects Chicago. She will offer solutions to climate change, diving deeper into renewable energy, energy efficiency, and fossil fuel divestment. She will share ways to implement change from an individual level to the collective level right here in Chicago.Co-Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship Chicago Chapter

Under the Same Sky: Climate Connects, Demands, and Informs UsRebecca SolnitSunday morning Dharma talk, April 3

Climate change is a teacher: in this moment it teaches that everything we do has repercussions, that everything is connected, that everything changes and that change must be met with change. This talk reflects on how climate change has been recognized and what possibilities as well as dangers it has opened up in the transformative last decade. How the ways climate is thought about fit into some of the larger transformations of environmental consciousness and perception in the past decades.

Rebecca Solnit, a San Francisco writer, historian, and activist, is the author of 17 books about geography, community, art, politics, hope, and feminism, and practices at San Francisco Zen Center. Her brilliant books include Wanderlust: A History of Walking; The Faraway Nearby; A Paradise Built in Hell; A Field Guide to Getting Lost; and Men Explain Things to Me.

Another election year has begun. Already the 24/7 news cycles have been filled with angry and hateful speech. How can we approach our responsibilities as citizens without becoming angry or cynical ourselves? Two Buddhist teachers will discuss how some basic spiritual practices can help us remain thoughtful, composed and committed. Sponsored by CIE and BPF Chicago

Climate change; endless wars, growing social inequality; mass incarceration; student debt; deterioration of public school systems; polarized politics. The list of major issues confronting this generation of Americans is very long and change comes slowly or not at all. Using a workshop format, "Becoming Resilient: Buddhist Meditation in Action" offers concrete resources for activists in dealing with frustration and a sense of hopelessness. Dharma teachers Taigen Dan Leighton and Jack Lawlor will show how Buddhist meditation techniques and practices can help us to stay sane and hopeful.

Free; light refreshments will be served. Sponsored by CIE and primarily for DePaul activist students.

In cultivating compassion for all sentient beings during a tumultuous time of human-caused suffering, it can be a challenge for Buddhist practitioners to contain the feelings of loss associated with the climate crisis in particular, and the world situation more generally. We will explore some effective strategies for bringing these difficult emotions into our dharma practice, and processing them in ways that lead to right action rather than despair and spiritual bypassing.

Zhiwa Woodbury is a long-time eco-activist, wildlife advocate, dharma practitioner, and hospice caregiver. He recently became an Eco-psychologist while offering service at Zen Hospice in San Francisco, and is in the process of writing a book tentatively entitled Planetary Hospice: Responding Compassionately to Our Climate in Crisis.

Can spiritual practice be useful to political problem solving? Our political systems, in America and many other countries, are grid-locked and dysfunctional, unable to respond to real threats to our world. Part of the problem is that we forget that there are multiple ways of regarding reality. The two most dominant may be called the Comparative and the Wholistic. Both sides are necessary to our true well-being. But alone, each is half-wrong. True Wisdom is the interaction of the two world-views. The work of balancing these aspects of reality is the legacy of many spiritual traditions. Peter Coyote will present clear examples of how this balance can be helpful and healing to specific current world problems.

PETER COYOTE is an actor and activist. He is also a Buddhist practitioner for 40 years, and was ordained as a Zen priest in 2011.

(For pictures and an audio of Alan Senauke's excellent talk given on 7/28/13, see the Gallery and the New Ideas pages!)BPF Chicago Event:Growing Vines of Engaged Buddhism,East and WestAlan Senauke of the Clearview Project will visit Chicago for a talk on Sunday July 28, 2:30pm at DePaul University!(Flyer on Downloads page)

In order to understand what Engaged Buddhism is we need to understand ourselves and our experience of practice and activism. And we should know about engaged Buddhism’s roots in Asia...Sunday July 28, 2013 — 2:30 to 4:30 pmDorothy Day Room, JTR 400, DePaul University Library2350 N. Kenmore Avenue, ChicagoCo-sponsored by: DePaul University Religious Studies DepartmentDePaul University Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies Department

5. Alan Senauke of the Clearview Project will be visiting Chicago for a talk on Sunday July 28, 2:30pm at DePaul Univ (Lincoln Park campus, exact location TBD)See you at these great events!--BPF Chicago

Co-sponsored by BPF Chicago:The Devil's Tango: How I Learned to Do the Fukushima Two-StepA book signing and talk with author Cecile Pineda

This book traces the worsening developments at Fukushima Daiichi during the first year following the nuclear disaster. Often poetic in tone and philosophic in scope, this book offers a unique perspective and attempts to come to terms with Fukushima nuclear melt-down’s catastrophic consequences on the planet.Also co-sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Information Service, and Ancient Dragon Zen Gate.Friday, March 15, 7:00pm – 8:30pmAncient Dragon Zen Gate, 1922 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago

Co-sponsored by BPF Chicago:Buddhism and Social Ethics: Historical Pitfalls and Current Possibilities

Buddhist Global Relief's Walk to Feed the Hungry will be this coming Saturday, Oct. 13, from 10 am to noon on the Lakefront Trail in Chicago's Lincoln Park. This walk is one of ten being held across the country and in the United Kingdom.

Co-sponsored by BPF Chicago:Iran: Internal Resistance and U.S. InterventionsPresentation and discussion with Iranian activist Saman Sepehrion what is happening in Iran and U.S. sanctions and rumors of war

7:00- 9:00 PM September 20, 2012Wellington Ave. United Church of Christ 615 West Wellington Ave., Chicago

Joanna Macy is a very inspiring, world-renowned teacher, scholar, activist, and long-time pioneer of Engaged Buddhism and Deep Ecology. In this workshop led by Joanna Macy, we will explore our radical interconnectedness with all being, which is the central teaching of the Buddha, and discover how this radical opening can brighten our lives and bring us courage and solidarity for healing our world.

In the midst of challenging economic and environmental issues, and important election year debates, come join us in discovering what the Buddhist tradition and its practitioners can offer American political discourse, policy, and social cohesion. A forum exploring how the national Buddhist Peace Fellowship and its Chicago chapter serve as a vehicle for pursuing ethical goals with others. Discussion and questions will follow.